The first time I came across Pokemon was when a few of my school friends decided to start collecting the cards. After seeing this I watched a few episodes of the television show and decided I wanted in. I got my starter pack in early 2000 with a shiny Hitmonchan and started trading for a short while. I got Pokemon Stadium immediately upon release and played it for a few solid months. Some years later (probably 2003 at this point) I downloaded a ROM of Pokemon Red and played it through for the first and only time (9/10).

And that’s about it. Never had any interest in anything that came after the original 150.

When Pokemon first appeared, i got so fed up with waiting for a UK release that i got it on US import approx 8 months before it came out here.

I still have a lot of the merchandise and stuff from back then too, including my trading card albums, my cardboard cutout Pikachu which came from a shop stand (i had the entire thing but had to get rid of the lower part when i moved house), and all the numerous figurines and plushes which were selling like hot cakes at the time.

I also still have my giant life sized pikachu plush which was an unusual Japanese import.

Not my own pic, but it is definitely one of these, complete with an original Tomy tag.

I have a lot of Pokemon related memories which makes it all the worse that I no longer like playng Pokemon games, I want to love them, I just dont. It think its because when it first came out I had loads of time to play it and my brothers were playing it at the same time so we could absolutely obsess over it. I remember we had a walkthough and pokedex that was always ebing read by one if us, looking at what Pokemon we could get and what they could do, when did Wartortle learn a move so should I stop him evolving for a couple of levels, that kind of thing. Got all 150 in the original games, I remember that Kabuto/Kabutops were all I needed to complete the Pokedex and my brother had the right fossil for it but he was going to bed. So he let me play his game, get the fossil resurrected, traded it to my game and then evolved it before trding it back to him. It was 5am when I finally got it all done and I had completed the Pokedex. I got an in game certificate for it, some load of gooseberry fool.

I've been on a Pokémon kick recently, they're the perfect TV game. I never beat soul silver so this week I hammered it. I knew the post game was the gen 1 map from guides I read but I didn't think it would take me 50 hours just to get here! The 3DS versions are definitely easier.

Sadly I already waste much more money than I’m proud of on Pokemon cards every month... so I’m unlikely to acquire this.

How much does it cost to stay competitive in the pro Pokemon card scene? Just curious.

At my level? Couple of hundred a month. Travel to events and keeping up to date with the new sets (they have an annoying habit of releasing money cards every three months) along with the heroin-esque rush of buying packs (it's just glorified gambling) adds up.

Still, it stopped me drinking and kept me relatively mentally stable when I was out of work, so it's a price worth paying.

Sadly I already waste much more money than I’m proud of on Pokemon cards every month... so I’m unlikely to acquire this.

How much does it cost to stay competitive in the pro Pokemon card scene? Just curious.

At my level? Couple of hundred a month. Travel to events and keeping up to date with the new sets (they have an annoying habit of releasing money cards every three months) along with the heroin-esque rush of buying packs (it's just glorified gambling) adds up.

Still, it stopped me drinking and kept me relatively mentally stable when I was out of work, so it's a price worth paying.

Cool, it seems expensive but I guess anything that involves travelling around to various tournaments would be a similar outlay. And it sounds like you get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of it!

You mentioned in another thread that you're hoping to compete internationally, right? Good luck!